If you’re planning to come to Lyndon, over the bank holiday weekend for one last Osprey-fix of the season, then you’re in luck. As I write, all of the Manton Bay family are still present, with 8F waiting patiently on the nest for a fish. He and his sister obviously aren’t quite ready to go just yet.

If you visited our Osprey project stand at the Birdfair, you may well have bought one of our superb selection of second-hand books. The sale was arranged by project volunteers Andy and Anne Strang to raise money for our education work in West Africa and elsewhere on the Osprey migration flyway. Sales at the fair totaled over £350, meaning the books alone have now raised £1790 for the project since Andy and Anne started selling them at the Birdfair last year – a fantastic effort. We are incredibly grateful to Andy and Anne for organising the sale and to everyone who has donated books so far.

Andy and Anne Strang at the Birdfair stand last week

The remaining books are now on sale at the Lyndon Visitor Centre and there are plenty of bargains still available, so don’t miss out – it’s all for a good cause.

We have good reason to be grateful to the Strang family, because Andy and Anne’s daughter Liz is also helping to raise money for the project. Liz is running this year’s Great North Run to help us raise the necessary funds to purchase new GPS satellite transmitters. If you have followed the fortunes of 09(98) over the last year, you’ll know that the transmitters have provided a wealth of new and incredibly valuable information on the bird’s migration and fishing habits. However, this kind of information doesn’t come cheap- each transmitter costs in excess of £2500 – and so we’re very grateful to Liz for helping us with our fund-raising efforts. If you would like to sponsor Liz, you can do so on her online fundraising page. GOOD LUCK LIZ!